Sources suggest that former Oiler Doug Weight will announce his retirement from the game today. Weight represented the very best post-Glory Barons Oilers and his passing from the game should be marked by all Oiler fans.

The day New York's Rangers dealt Doug Weight to Edmonton, the New York Times (March 18, 1993) called it like this:

Weight moved his things, and a heavy heart, to the visitors' dressing room at Madison Square Garden. Tikkanen brought his belongings and an ever-present grin to the home hallway, where he chatted cheerily with his new teammates while working on his sticks.

The story goes that Weight didn't have time to tell his wife, so she found out at the game. Their first chance to communicate came during the national anthems, he as an Oiler and she sitting with the Ranger wives.

From those chaotic beginnings, Doug Weight and family made a home in Edmonton and Oiler fans were thrilled with the trade as time wore on. It's important to remember that during that time Oiler fans watched quality Boys on the Bus players being dealt on a monthly basis; the return was never so dear as the day Slats delivered Doug Weight.

Weight was a stocky sort, a sublime passer with equal parts intelligence and a rugged style. During his time as on Oiler, the club overachieved, won playoff series and gave fans the impression things were heading in the right direction. Once, during a losing streak, Weight had an "on-ice players only" meeting which motivated the entire club. Edmonton caught fire and embarked on a long winning streak.

Weight had a way about him. Although not the biggest player, he had a recklessness and an edge to him that kept other teams at bay. Weight went a little crazy one night when Bryan Marchment attempted to slew foot him (in San Jose) and ended up getting kicked out of the game. Weight (unlike a lot of skill players) took matters into his own hands and made an impression. Over the years, Oiler fans became quite attached to the young man from Warren, Michigan.

The day he was traded (to St. Louis for Jochen Hecht, Marty Reasoner and Jan Horacek--it was July 1, 2001) the Oilers lost a big part of themselves. Although competitive afterward, the club wouldn't have success until after the lockout.

The Edmonton Oilers have never had a center of his quality since that day.

Doug Weight won his Stanley in 2006, playing for the Carolina Hurricanes. Although the most painful memory in this fan's lifetime, I still can't work up a lather against Doug Weight. He was a rental, he was injured and one of the few things I can smile about from that spring is a class guy getting his Stanley Cup ring.

Sail on, Doug Weight. We've never forgotten you, and we never will.

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I was very sad to see Weight go when he was traded. Weight made it fun to watch those Oiler teams of the mid to late 90's. You can argue that Weight was one of the most classiest Oilers to ever play for Edmonton. He loved playing for the Oilers and loved playing in Edmonton. Everytime he ever spoke of Edmonton he had nothing but great things to say.

He wanted to remain an Oiler that I seem to recall him willing to take an EXTREME discount to stay. If memory serves me well he was asking for around 3-4 mil per to stay. He ended up getting traded to the Blues and made double that. That alone should tell you what a stanup guy Weight was.

Dougie I was sad when you got traded and now I am equally as sad to see you retire.

I grew up during the "glory years" and yet Doug Weight is still pretty close to being my favorite Oiler.

His affection for our team/city was genuine, and it came at a time when, as an Oiler fan, that meant everything.

The Boys on the Bus were part of a simplier/more naive NHL, and hell, their greatness was almost pre-ordained. Weight was there when we were emerging from the dark cloud of Pocklington, in the "it's a business" era of the game. Great captain and great player.

My memories are the same as your, LT. That night in San Jose (epic - 39 minutes in penalties on that play if memory serves), and taking a brief moment from my G7 depression to be happy for his Cup win.

A toast to you Mr. Weight to the days when we actually got our money's worth for our ticket. A natural leader and a classy guy!
Curious tho' that in 10 years management hasn't come up with a centreman even close to his talent. Ridiculous.

For all of his contributions on the ice I think he was even more valuable as an ambassador for the team and to soem extent even city.

It's my belief that the day Weight was traded was the day the Oilers turned the corner from being a tight knit team of players that would go through the end boards for each other that play for a storied and classy organization that resides in a small but friendly and family oriented city, towards being a directionless, sometimes mystifying organization that spend too much time begging and not enough time building that happens to play in a cold and bitter outpost of a city.

A bit harsh maybe, but the point is there. When Weight was still here in seemed the only thing keeping the extra pieces away was money. Now it seems to be 100 different things...

I realize that sounds silly, but back then I had a real dislike of American players or, to be more exact, the ones who came through Edmonton.

I had no problem with the Modanos and Lafontaines and Leetchs of the league but back then I had a lot of bitterness over Jimmy Carson. He seemed like everything that I hated about Americans back then (it’s not something I’m proud to admit as it was an irrational disdain, to be sure).

But guys like Weight and Marchant and Grier and Guerin changed that. None of them, that I recall, spoke ill of Edmonton or Canada after I left – in fact, I recall Weight and Guerin speaking up quite prominently in Edmonton’s defence a few years ago after Pronger left and everyone was labelling Edmonton as the NHL’s Siberia for free agents.

So, just to throw out this idea – any thought of perhaps retiring No. 39? He was a pretty damn good Oiler.

I'll never forget the sick deke to backhand he scored right off the opening puck drop against Calgary. 'You can't trade for first line centers', we did and have never recovered. Dougie is among the great Oiler captains.

Class guy, great captain and a heart and soul kind of player. It was a pleasure to watch him restore some of our former pride in the late 90s. I loved watching him in the series' against Dallas, he had such fire even though it was obvious we were usually outgunned.

We have been waiting for a player like him ever since. I personally would love to see #39 hanging from the rafters if only as a tribute to what he meant to the team in the leanest years of our existence.

As much as I hated to See Carolina beat us in game 7 watching Weight with the Cup made me feel good for just that moment as a more classy player you will never find. When We are in the new building we need to have a place where we honor all the former Captains of the Oilers. Producing a place where we show the Great history of the team is important to developing a winning attitude.

Class guy, great captain and a heart and soul kind of player. It was a pleasure to watch him restore some of our former pride in the late 90s. I loved watching him in the series' against Dallas, he had such fire even though it was obvious we were usually outgunned.

We have been waiting for a player like him ever since. I personally would love to see #39 hanging from the rafters if only as a tribute to what he meant to the team in the leanest years of our existence.

I know we have a policy that only players in the HHOF have their Jerseys retired but I also think there is a lot of Weight to your argument 39 tons of it! Honor should be bestowed!

The only silver lining about '06 was Dougie getting his Cup. That lining was extremely faint and was not really apparent to me until the heartache diminished. Which of course means that I can still barely see it.

Would you retire Dougie's number? Getting your number retired in Edmonton is tougher than old beef jerky where it seems part of the protocol is that you have to be inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I take a measure of pride in this very stringent requirement. However, I think an exception should be made for Dougie. Not only was he a great Oiler, he was also a great person.

We also need to consider the context of his tenure in Edmonton and the history of the team. The 90's were turbulent years for the Oilers. The team was losing money, was missing the playoffs and had an owner that the community no longer respected. The team was rumoured to be leaving and the departures of the Jets and Nordiques raised the fear level. It really felt like the Oilers were going to leave. A last ditch effort by Bill Comrie and SOS put together a conglomerate of owners to buy the team from Peter and assure that the team was going nowhere. Right at the same time, the team started to turn things around on the ice and this really consolidated community support around the team. The surprise 1st round defeat of the Stars followed by a defeat of the Avs the following year. Things were fun again. At the centre of it all was our star player, Doug Weight. From that aspect, I think you could argue Doug played a big part in keeping the team in Edmonton. EIG did not have deep pockets. But excitement with the on-ice product kept the gate receipts coming and it was sufficient for the team to struggle its way to the next collective bargaining agreement.

My big regret about the Doug Weight years is that towards the late 90s, the Oilers were maybe one or two players away from going deep into the playoffs. Guerin, Weight, Smyth, Hamrlik, Curtis Joseph were all pretty good players around which to build a contender.

Doug Weight is and was my favorite skilled Oilers player of all time, and the day that they traded him for garbage was the day that a lot of me stopped really cheering for the Oilers, as it was the day that symbolized, to me at least, that the old ownership group was happy with just having a NHL team in the city and weren't truly committed to having and spending to have a championship team here.

At least the ownership now at least seems sincere about having a championship team appear at the end of the rainbow, but I won't be convinced until Hall is signed to the 10 yr/80 mil contract that he should be worth as soon as his rookie deal is done.

I agree it's too bad Dougie never came back to finish his career here, but I wish him nothing but the best, and if he just has to appear smarter than Garth Snow, he should be the Isles GM by this time next year lol.

I ran into Doug and three other Oilers were with him at Barry T's one night back in the day. I remember it was around 11:00pm and I was definitely half in the bag as was most of the bar, but Doug and the other guy's were cool and collected and sipping on a few beers. They were trying to keep a low profile and stayed near the end of the bar area where they wouldn't get noticed too much. I thought, heck I'm not going to bug these guys for an autograph, I'm going to tell them a few jokes! So I saddled up next to them and told Doug and the guys a few jokes and then I shook their hands and left them alone. They finished off a couple of beers and took off before the place got too rowdy and before they started getting pestered too much. All around good guys and you could tell from just looking at the four of them that they all followed Weight's lead and kept themselves in control and handled themselves with discretion and maturity. I kinda learned something from him that day as well. It's cooler to drink and be in control than it is to get out of control and be an ass.

Kinda like the one time I was at the Morgue with some buddies and Chris Chelios was on the dance floor, shirt off, beer in his hand spraying everyone near him and sweating like a mad man for being on the dance floor for so long. I was like, "who is that muscle head going off and why arent the bouncers kicking him out"? Then my buddy says, that's Chris Chelios. Oh I said, yeah that makes sense. haha

Would you retire Dougie's number? Getting your number retired in Edmonton is tougher than old beef jerky where it seems part of the protocol is that you have to be inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

I take a measure of pride in this very stringent requirement. However, I think an exception should be made for Dougie. Not only was he a great Oiler, he was also a great person.

We also need to consider the context of his tenure in Edmonton and the history of the team. The 90's were turbulent years for the Oilers. The team was losing money, was missing the playoffs and had an owner that the community no longer respected. The team was rumoured to be leaving and the departures of the Jets and Nordiques raised the fear level. It really felt like the Oilers were going to leave. A last ditch effort by Bill Comrie and SOS put together a conglomerate of owners to buy the team from Peter and assure that the team was going nowhere. Right at the same time, the team started to turn things around on the ice and this really consolidated community support around the team. The surprise 1st round defeat of the Stars followed by a defeat of the Avs the following year. Things were fun again. At the centre of it all was our star player, Doug Weight. From that aspect, I think you could argue Doug played a big part in keeping the team in Edmonton. EIG did not have deep pockets. But excitement with the on-ice product kept the gate receipts coming and it was sufficient for the team to struggle its way to the next collective bargaining agreement.

Dougie is a class act and one of my favourite Oilers all-time.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll keep planting the idea until it happens: the Oilers need a 2nd tier level of honour. Lots of other teams have a Wall-of-Fame type-thing where guys can get honoured without getting the jersey in the rafters. Guys like: Doug Weight, Bill Ranford, Curtis Joseph, Kevin Lowe, Joey Moss. I'd love to see a plaque and portrait in the concourse of Rexall (or a the rink).

Doug Weight was one of my favourite Oilers of all time, and that's saying alot considering I'm from the Boys on the Bus generation. I still remember hoping and praying that as Dougie was coming to the end of his contract that we would hear an announcement of a contract extension. He always seemed sincere when it came to praising the Oilers and the city. Class act all the way!

....LT really good piece LT...question...The Bloomfield Jet reference ... did he live in Bloomfield outside of Detroit?... many sites have him born in Warren, Michigan ... wondering out loud...my family lived in Bloomfield Hills when i was a child before we moved to Canada...and so was he a Jet first in Bloomfield?

The only silver lining about '06 was Dougie getting his Cup. That lining was extremely faint and was not really apparent to me until the heartache diminished. Which of course means that I can still barely see it.

*Stupid MA Bergeron.

Yes, should Tampa Bay make it into the finals, perhaps we should send that a short note to say that they would be ill-advised to play both Rollie and MA Bergeron in the Stanley Cup Finals...

Hats off to Dougie Weight! His play helped bring me into the fold of Oiler fans.

Excellent piece LT. I too came from the glory days era but #39 is my all time favorite Oiler. I remember being on the golf course that Canada day and us getting a call from our buddy telling us Weight was traded. It was a sad day because he was just such a gigantic figure with this team and city. To this day this organization has not replaced him on or off the ice. What he did for this franchise during the gory years with very limited talent should not go unnoticed. He put up the numbers playing with below average talent early on in his Edmonton days. Weight is as classy as anyone who ever played here. Its time to make exceptions to the HOF rule....#39 should be going to the rafters.

I remember the first time I met Mr.Weight. He Arnott and i think it was Brathwaite were at Barry T's, they had a line up of fine looking ladies waiting to talked to them, Doug grabbed me by my shirt and introduced me to a stunner. He told her i was just called up to play with the Oilers and that I was going to be a big star some day.

best Oiler ever in my opinion. should have retired an oiler. god bless you Dougie

Best Oiler ever? You do realize that we had Gretzky on this team right? There are a host of HOFers that are pretty incredible as well when compared to the general hockey populace that would be a tier down from 99 but still above 39.

He might have been your favorite but to say he was the "best" is delusional.

For some of the younger Oiler fans like myself who weren't around for the glory days, Dougie Weight was as good as it got for the Oilers. He was a class act and a fiery competitor. Best of luck to him in his post hockey career. The way the Islanders roll he will probably be the GM in a few years.

Last Oiler to hit the century mark - that alone should give him some ceremony if not a retired jersey. Don't remember that he was willing to take a discount to stay, but he definitely was an Edmonton booster. Unlike the a-hole Pronger, Weight left the city with dignity and grace.

....LT really good piece LT...question...The Bloomfield Jet reference ... did he live in Bloomfield outside of Detroit?... many sites have him born in Warren, Michigan ... wondering out loud...my family lived in Bloomfield Hills when i was a child before we moved to Canada...and so was he a Jet first in Bloomfield?

thanks again

I do these "Sail on" posts whenever a player of importance moves along. Doug Weight's first listed team on his bio was the Bloomfield Jets.